The European composer known as Tiago Videira has released his new LP album, titled, “Toy Portugal.” The record is comprised of 15 original tracks for an approximate total listening time of 50 minutes. A vivid, endlessly creative and remarkable record, “Toy Portugal” is a classical music album unlike any that has come before it.

“Toy Portugal” is music largely composed for and performed on an actual child's piano – a toy piano –
though it does not represent the only instrumentation on the record. The sound is part harpsichord, part music box, and through it many of Videira's compositions inspire images of dreams, fantasies, circuses and makeshift playgrounds amid the bustling, winding streets of Portugal.

“Toy Portugal is a soundtrack of my past.,” writes the musician. “All these pieces are highly evocative and programmatic and they are associated with sounds, places, people and memories of my childhood in Portugal. In a certain way I’m re-living my own history and using a toy piano as my voice, to create my own folklore.”

That the album is a work of great character strikes the hearer instantly. That it is the lovingly constructed art of a genius also becomes plain in short order.

“This set of pieces was a very personal project that lasted from 2010 to the end of 2013,” Videira continues, “and it was all conceived by myself. I conceived all the pieces and arrangements, I’ve interviewed and recorded the persons telling the stories, I performed, mixed and mastered all the materials.”

“Toy Portugal” has been concurrently released with a songbook, also, which supplies fellow players with sheet music. In addition to piano, Tiago Videira has been playing guitar and flutes since the age of 15. The toy piano, which is (severely) limited to two octaves and physically fragile beneath the hands of an adult, is a recent addition to his talents.

Videira writes of his goals with “Toy Portugal:” “I hope I have achieved a very enjoyable repertoire, suited for the international market, with an 'exotic and ethnic' flavor and at the same time amusing and fun to play. I invite also the listeners to buy the musical score and try to play it. It’s also an invitation for them to see the toy piano as a musical resource and as a serious instrument.”

“Toy Portugal” is available for listening and as sheet music online worldwide. Get in early.